CD Reviews

Audibly Overwhelming

Hot Coque | 04/19/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Early work by Jim O'Rourke in which he attempts to bring together diffrent elements and styes of avante-garde music into a piece whose effect is completly overwhelming. 1 track only timing in at about 40 minutes it begins with Fahey/Bull minimalist lines carefully sugesting a melody with slow drone barly audible in the background. Half way through the texture of the conrad-esque becomes the centre piece and grows completly overwhelming. Your ability to distinguish the microtonal and macrotonal changes is affected. The history of modern music from minimalist to serialist and back again. Possibly the most engaging piece of music I've ever heard."

This ain't no party music; it's better than kick drums and m

Benjamin Myers | Bloomington, IN USA | 08/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This isn't just a "drone piece", it's a meditative work involving a focus on an octave pair and related tones. If you listen there exist slight differences in times between notes. Western music infuriates me sometimes. They work in certain divisions of rhythms and tones (i.e. 8th/16th notes, 12 tone scales) and anything outside of this ("semitones") is "weird" and hard to listen to.

In other styles of music, such as Indian, the tonal systems are different than in Western music. Such is the case in O'Rourke's rhythm scheme. The variation isn't within the tones, but within the timbres and rhythms. The timbre variation is easiest to recognize once the hurdy gurdy kicks in. My heart skips a beat when it buzzes; I always think it's my speakers, but it's too perfect for that.

I first heard this song in Harmony Korine's "Julien Donkey-Boy" and haven't been able to get it out of my head since.

If you're looking for something unconventional and meditative, where you listen closely to rhythms and timbres rather than melodies, you should own this album. It's too perfect not to."

It'll scare the dogs, but...

Hot Coque | 09/26/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"this is great concentration music - sit between your speakers with the lights out and you'll understand. Who needs drugs when simple audio frequencies can do this to you? Whoo-hooo!That being said, I've cleared a few crowded rooms with drones like this before... ;)I love you,Hot Coque"